Device for furnishing vital and costly food with ornaments and writing

ABSTRACT

A device for furnishing vital and costly food with ornaments and writing, preferably pastries, by way of screen printing, by means of a viscous printing paste prepared of vital or costly food, the ornaments or writing being first applied onto an edible, flat support by utilizing a temperature controllable screen, said support being subsequently applied onto the food or as a negative onto a thin foil and being then transferred onto the support to be printed in the transfer process.

United States Patent '1 Ritzer 5] Oct. 24, 1972 Ulrich Ritzer, Claudiaplatz 1, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria Filed: Feb. 6, 1969 Appl. No.2 796,973

Inventor:

US. Cl. ..99/4s0.1, 118/13 1m. 01. ..A23g 3/20 [56] References Cited UNTTED STATES PATENTS 1,417,157 5/1922 Fousek ..107/27X Field of Search ....107/27, 52, 54; 101/114, 126,

5/1927 Carter ..101/114 1,627,630 1,781,209 11/1930 Barbera ..1o7/27 x 3,221,648 12/1965 Weiss v ..101/126 x Primary Examiner-Louis K. Rimrodt Att0rneyWaters, Roditi, Schwartz & Nissen [57] ABSTRACT A device for furnishing vital and costly food with ornaments and writing, preferably pastries, by way of screen printing, by means of a viscousprinting paste prepared of vital or costly food, the ornaments or writ ing being first applied onto'an edible, flat support by v utilizing a temperature controllable screen, said support being subsequentlyapplied onto the food or as a negative onto a thin foil and being then transferred onto the support to be printed in the transfer process.

10 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures PATENTEU um '24 I972 Fig. 2

DEVICE FOR FURNISHING VITAL AND COSTLY FOOD WITH ORNAMENTS AND WRITING SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Vital and costly food to be furnished with ornaments and writing have heretofore been painted by hand by utilizing different kinds of food colors. Not only does this demand much time, but also requires skilled workers; thus this method can only be applied if the latter is at hand.

A simplification by means of prefabricated stencils make it possible to use unskilled personnel; however, it is necessary to work with powdery material because clear contours cannot be obtained with liquid material owing to the'irregular color distribution. This is due to the fact that liquid colors are not taken everywhere by the usually oily support and are urged aside by too firm a pressure of the brush stroking overthe stencil.

A method has been proposed by' which neat omaments or writing having proper and regular surfaces are obtained by way of screen printing, by utilizing a viscous printing paste prepared of vital or costly food. By applying the color onto the support by droplet, a sufficient adhesion is obtained on oily and not absorbing surfaces, too, .so that blurred contours and other irregularities are avoided.

According to this method the screen photographically produced in the usual manner and firmly held in a riddle of the screen printing stencil, can be applied to the surface to be printed, the printing paste being pressed through the screen openings by means of a blade. In the same way, a negative on a smooth foil can be produced which can subsequently be transferred onto the surface to be printed like a transfer picture. As compared to the firstmentioned process, this transfer method presents the advantage that the picture or the writing do not project over the printing surface because they are submerged in the latter. In order to keep the printing paste at the same temperature, it has been proposed to provide the screen with a temperature control.

Any viscous mass prepared of vital or costly food can be utilized as printing paste. In order to work in series, it is preferable to utilize printing pastes showing a durable, not too delicate picture without great precautions. They have to solidify rapidly so that the contours are not blurred.,In practice, only materials can be utilized which solidify by cooling.

Their melting or solidifying point has to be above the normal maximum air or room temperature, i.e. above 35 40. If this is not the case, the writing or ornaments begin to melt, and they can blur or easily smear.

The structure of the printing paste must not decompose even in solidifying, thus a sufficient cohesion must remain. This is usually the case with materials solidifying by cooling.

The aforementioned conditions required for a printing paste adapted for the present method are fulfilled, for example, by cocoa-butter, but also by all other oils having a high melting point. These are particularly vegetable oils having a sufficiently high melting point, whereas animal oils such as butter and lard etc. already soften with usual medium air temperatures.

The support to be printed may consist of any desired vital or costly food. Preferably, according to the cited method, cake surfaces of white or colored cocoa-butter are furnished with writing.

The present invention has the object to create a device by which the aforementioned method can be used for continuous production; especially the dripping of the printing paste from the screen after removal from the support is to be prevented. It is characterized inthat, above the printing device, a cooling room for solidifying the printing paste is provided in which the screen lifted from the support having entered the printing device as a belt or foil, is placed in the interval between the printing phases and in that, behind the printing device in the direction of movement of the intermittently conveyed belt, a cooling and, subsequently, a punching device are arranged.

The screen can be lifted or lowered in parallel to the printing surface or, according to a preferred embodiment, it can be rotated about an axis parallel to an edge, after the printing operation as is known the printing paste being collected in the area of the rotating edge, but outside the printing surface, and not being able to drop through the meshes of the screen.

The screen may be connected to a ventilator which sucks the belt or foil towards the screen when the screen is put on.

FIG. 1 shows the total arrangement of the device according to the invention in schematic view,

FIG. 2 is a side view of the punching device and FIG. 3 is a side view ofa tilting riddle in the printing device.

The support or foil 1 to be treated and unwound from a roller 20 is placed into the printing device 9 by means of a motor-driven conveyor belt 2 running over guide rollers 4, 5. A riddle 6 is arranged in the printing device which can be lowered onto the foil 1 and be lifted therefrom.

According to the schematic view of FIG. 1 the hearing area of the riddle 6 is lifted in parallel to the support to be treated. The printing stencil-7 is stretched in the riddle 6. In order to prevent the printing paste from already solidifying upon the passage through the screen gauze, which might result in a blockage of the latter or in irregular picture contours, the screen gauze can be kept at a temperature, in the case of metallic gauze through connection to a current source, which is above the solidifying point of the paste. As shown in FIG. 1, the lower part of the printing device 9 can be heated by a heating device 16, whereas the part of the printing device 9 above the latter is brought to a temperature below the solidifying point of the printing paste by a cooling device 17.

The screen gauze and therefore the printing paste in the actual printing room have a temperature keeping the paste viscous and ready for printing. Above this temperature, however, the paste solidifies and is prevented from dropping onto the support. The printing paste is supplied by a stock bin 8 which is kept at a temperature enabling the paste to flow in without blockage of the screen gauze.

FIG. 3 shows a particularly preferable device preventing the dripping of paste from the riddle 6 onto the foil 1. Here the riddle 6 containing the stencil 7 can be rotated around an axis 18 from the foil 1, the rest of the printing paste remaining on the stencil 7 flowing back into the zone of the axis of rotation 18 where the led back blade 19 is provided, thus remaining outside the support. When lowering the riddle 6, the printing paste is stroked by the blade 19 over the stencil 7 in a known manner.

In this arrangement special heating or cooling devices are avoided, a fouling of the foil by the dripping paste being avoided with certainty.

After the printing operation the foil 1 is brought into a cooling zone where the printing paste solidifies immediately and, subsequently, into the punching device 1 1. In the latter, the foil 1 runs directly over the printing table 14 with the-conveyor belt -2 preferably consisting of a material resistant to punching. The punch 13 formed in accordance with the desired mold on the press head 12 manufactures the desired finished product. The cooling zone 10 and the punching device 11 can also be assembled in one zone as shown in FIG. 2 cooling coils 21 or the like establishing the desired low temperature.

Preferably all movable elements of the device are driven by a common motor 3, the lifting, lowering or rotating of the riddle, the movement of the conveyor belt 2 and of the punching device being controlled in synchronism in such manner that as the blade move ment is also comprised in this control a fully automatic production up to the finished product is guaranteed.

In the direct printing method, the surface to be printed has to be flat owing to the printing stencils which have just been stretched in the riddle and rest against the surface. Preferably a ventilator 22 is connected to the screen 6, said ventilator sucking the foil 1 onto the screen'surface during the printing operation. The ventilator 22 controlled in synchronism with the other movements is only put into motion, when the screen 6 rests against the foil 1.

In the transfer process, vital and costly food is util ized as a support which can be made viscous through heating because the writing or ornaments are transferred by a melting operation. The printing support is connected with the transfer surface in a viscous state at a temperature above the melting point of the printing paste. The writing or ornaments melt where they project into the viscous support; after cooling, the adhesion to the support is considerably stronger than on the smooth surface of the foil; thus the latter can be withdrawn from the writing or ornaments.

Therefore the smooth surface of the foil is absolutely necessary for the transfer process. In contrast to a direct printing, the foil preferably consisting of tin foil, special kinds of paper or plastics material, can also be adapted to curved surfaces in such manner that curvilinear supports can be printed in this way, too.

The size of mesh of the screen gauze has to be as fine as possible in order to put well adhering droplets which are as small as possible onto the support. A too fine a screen gauze results in an easy blockage by the viscous printing paste. A mesh size of to 80 lines per cm has proved convenient.

The temperature of the printing paste during the printing operation is to be chosen slightly above the solidifying point. Thus a dripping after the removal of the stencil from the support is largely avoided. Moreover, the paste solidifies immediately, when it enters the cooling zone or upon rotating the screen the cooler zone below its temperature, as is provided according to the invention.

The temperature of the support to be printed, i.e. in the direct method, the temperature of the food to be rinted or, in the transfer r ess, that of th foil, h o be below the solidifying p int of the printing past Low temperatures must also be avoided because otherwise the picture points produced by the lattice structure of the stencil are not connected to homogeneous lines and surfaces, as desired, owing to the rapid solidifying of the printing paste.

In the transfer process, the temperature of the surface to be printed has to correspond atleast to the melting temperature of the printing paste so that they form an intimate connection through melting. This is especially obtained when the printing support and the printing paste consist of the same material.

What I claim is: v

1. Apparatus for continuously furnishing food substance with ornaments and writing, said apparatus including a stencil printing screen for supporting a viscous printing paste, said printing paste being constituted of food substance, means for supplying said printing screen with said paste, a continuous support movable below said screen, means for continuously carrying said continuous support below said screen, means for applying said paste through said screen onto said support, cooling means above said screen for solidifying the paste to prevent dripping between'successive printing phases, heating means proximate said printing screen for acting on said paste, to increase the viscosity of the latter, and a punching device for acting on said support to provide finished ornamented articles.

2. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said support is constituted of food substance.

3. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said support is constituted of an unedible foil.

4. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said means for continuously carrying said support includes an endless belt.

5. Apparatus as, claimed in claim 4 wherein said punching device is spaced from said screen in the direction of said endless belt for receiving said support after said paste has been applied to said support.

6. Apparatus as claimed in claim 5, including further cooling means interposed between said punching device and said screen.

7. Apparatus as claimed in claim 4 including synchronizing means for operating said endless belt, said screen, and said means for applying said paste through said screen all in controlled synchronism.

8. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 including further cooling means and a housing for housing said punching device and said further cooling means together.

9. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said screen is constituted of metallic gauze and including electrothermal means constituting said heating means and connected to said screen.

10. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 including suction means for acting on said support to draw the latter upwards intocontact with said screen. 

1. Apparatus for continuously furnishing food substance with ornaments and writing, said apparatus including a stencil printing screen for supporting a viscous printing paste, said printing paste being Constituted of food substance, means for supplying said printing screen with said paste, a continuous support movable below said screen, means for continuously carrying said continuous support below said screen, means for applying said paste through said screen onto said support, cooling means above said screen for solidifying the paste to prevent dripping between successive printing phases, heating means proximate said printing screen for acting on said paste to increase the viscosity of the latter, and a punching device for acting on said support to provide finished ornamented articles.
 2. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said support is constituted of food substance.
 3. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said support is constituted of an unedible foil.
 4. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said means for continuously carrying said support includes an endless belt.
 5. Apparatus as claimed in claim 4 wherein said punching device is spaced from said screen in the direction of said endless belt for receiving said support after said paste has been applied to said support.
 6. Apparatus as claimed in claim 5, including further cooling means interposed between said punching device and said screen.
 7. Apparatus as claimed in claim 4 including synchronizing means for operating said endless belt, said screen, and said means for applying said paste through said screen all in controlled synchronism.
 8. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 including further cooling means and a housing for housing said punching device and said further cooling means together.
 9. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said screen is constituted of metallic gauze and including electrothermal means constituting said heating means and connected to said screen.
 10. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 including suction means for acting on said support to draw the latter upwards into contact with said screen. 